Newsletter August 2000
TOOL NEWSLETTER AUGUST, 2000 E.V. It's official now: Tool's NEW WEBSITE (dissectional.com) will be launched in conjunction with their forthcoming CD. Among other things, the site will give fans access to the artwork, literature and music which individual members of the band draw their inspiration from. More details to follow. In other good news, Justin's former band, PEACH is due to re-release their CD, "Giving Birth to a Stone" sometime in October. This was originally released in Europe back in 93 on Mad Minute Records, a small label owned by Justin's brother, Jim Chancellor. The re-mastered disc includes the tracks "You Lied" and "Spasm" which were performed live by Tool during their last show at Coachella with Justin accompanying Maynard on vocals. In addition to the backing vocals on the disc, Justin does a wicked job singing on a track called "Dougal" The new CD also features macabre cover art by Adam Jones, utilizing a sculpture he created for the re-release. Along with Justin on bass and vocals, the other members of Peach are Rob Havis on drums, Simon Oakes playing guitar and doing the vocals and last (but certainly not least) Ben Durling on guitar. Sunday, August 13th was one of those hellish non-days where I woke up at 4:00 in the afternoon wondering what god I have offended. That's because on Saturday SASHA POPOVIC AND KATHY PRESLAR GOT MARRIED! Afterwards we all celebrated with a pool party at AJs. The reception (excuse me - the party) had a Mexican theme with mariachi and margaritas. Danny brought the Liverite. I'll write more about this bash in the next issue if I remember anything. I make no promises folks. A belated happy birthday to ALOKE DUTTA, tabla master who has performed with Tool on several occasions. Party was at Danny's (an apt pupil of Aloke's) and went on into the early hours. Around midnight, the guru wanted to renounce his ascetic ways for a trip to Jumbo's Clown Room where he sucked foam and stuffed dollars(along with a few rupees by mistake)into the G-strings of those fine ladies performing on the stage. After an hour or so of this, I was beginning to wonder if the Master was going to end up just another Indian bongo player with Tommy burger stains on his Nehru jacket, but alas, the guru regained enough supernatural powers to overcome the glare of Hollywood samsara. And in the end, perfect balance was achieved. FROM OUR LAWYERS: "It pains us to announce that any unsolicited audio / visual materials we receive will be discarded without being opened." Members of the band went out to Joshua Tree during the peak hours of the PERSEID METEOR SHOWER . Show began promptly on the night of August 11 and got good around 1:00 AM. (we scoff at the moon shining on our party). Some of you may have heard strains of "Stinkfist" being played on a rusty harmonica then you were close to our base-camp (i.e. SUV and half-empty keg). Observers in the Northern hemisphere should've looked to the NE sky in the direction of the constellation of Perseus. This for anyone in the Phoenix area - what's up with BUBBA, that enigmatic, intense ruby-red light seen in the night skies performing erratic aerial maneuvers? Let us know if you've seen this rather punctual critter along with a description of the object(?) and your own impression of what you were looking at. I've a strange feeling this ain't swamp gas. CLONING CROWLEY? (Frater Ijynx) While milling about at an antiquarian book fair several months ago, one of the dealers was telling a few of us how Danny Carey was going to a great deal of effort to obtain a very rare volume by Aleister Crowley. The book he was seeking was White Stains, a compilation of erotic verse first published privately and pseudonymously in 1898 in an edition limited to only 100 copies. According to the dealer, the reason Carey was so desperate to get his hands on the first edition was not merely for Crowley's poetic genus or the scarcity of the book(with an estimated 14 copies believed to exist), but, rather, because of what White Stains contains on its cloth cover - namely a white stain of Crowley’s own semen. The dealer then went on to tell me that this biological material was going to be used in an attempt to clone the Great Beast in a bio-genetic laboratory somewhere in Switzerland! Before commenting on this wild claim, I will give a few details on the book and on Crowley's death. According to Crowley's Confessions, nearly all of the original 100 copies of White Stains were destroyed by HM Customs in 1924 due to the pornographic nature of the book(which included allusions to bestiality). As a way of answering to these charges, Crowley offers the explanation that, while it is technically an obscene book, it was merely an innocent attempt using artistic methods to confute the findings of von Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis with his conclusions about the "terrible results of misguided passion" mistaken for pornography. As Crowley states in the “Hag”, “vile minds think it a vile book.” With regards to his other two volumes of erotica, The Scented Garden of Abdullah the Satirist of Shiraz (1910) and Snowdrops from a Curate's Garden(1904)Crowley tells us that they were actuality mystical verses of a profoundly esoteric nature for those wise enough to penetrate the veil of obscene jesting. (NOTE: Both "The Scented Garden" and "Snowdrops" are even more scarce than White Stains - and are virtually unobtainable outside a few university collections.) It is widely believed (although I don't recall the source)that Crowley consecrated each of the 100 copies with his own special elixir - this, perhaps, as part of an early ritual of sex-magick to ensure the book's success. However, I rather doubt this was the case due to the fact that, at the time, Crowley, himself , wasn't initiated into OTO sex-magick techniques. I should add, though, that I have personally seen a first edition copy of White Stains which did have a stain of something whitish-colored on its black cover. As for Crowley's death, the Great Beast died in December of 1947 at the age of 72 - his body being cremated in England on December 5th. According to the editors of Red Flame, the ashes were given to his friend, Karl Germer, who eventually buried the urn(placed in a small casket in a strong box)under a pine tree on his New Jersey property in April of 49. Therefore, if we accept the belief of the semen-stained covers, the few surviving copies of White Stains might be the only source of obtaining Crowley's DNA. As I listened to the book dealer, I must say it was hard to keep from laughing. Having known Danny for many years and as a fellow collector of Crowleyana, I could just see Dan pulling this guy's leg. He probably had some over-priced reprints he was trying to unload, and Danny decided to have a little fun. I know that Danny (as would any sane collector of Crowley firsts) would love to get his hands on the 1st with an authentic stain being the icing on the cake, but as for cloning Crowley, that was too much. It should have ended there - another victim of the humor of a sick bibliophile, but several months later I see the same tale running rampant on the Internet. And this time there are more details about the cloning biz including the name of the Swiss geneticist entrusted for the procedure. When I finish reading the piece, I realize that the only thing they got right was the name of a certain person involved in a special project of Danny's. The Swiss geneticist (whose initials are M.F.) it turns out is a building contractor hired by Carey to construct a neo-Gothic tower on his property. For those interested, this is to be a replica of "LA TOUR MAGDALA" at Rennes-Le-Chateau, a chess-piece-looking affair to house his library (with or without White Stains). I then learn that there really is a group of Swiss geneticists who are quite interested in cloning a human being - though I’ll bet Crowley's not too high on their list. These scientists, it seems, are Raelians - followers of Claude Vorilhon-Rael, the leader of a garden-variety apocalyptic-ufo cult whose insignia is a swastika inside a Star of David. I can assure you that Danny has NOTHING to do with this cult or religion - as they'd prefer it be known. At any rate, while scanning these snippets on the cyber rumormill, it soon became apparent that many of these people didn't understand just exactly what a clone is. Even if one were somehow successful in cloning a little "Alick" from the biological material in question, there is no reason to assume you'd have yourself a budding "satanic occultist"(if that's what you believe Crowley was). Like most humans, Crowley turned out the way he did due to a variety of factors - many having to with his environment. For young Alick", it was his strict Victorian upbringing. Born to parents who were members of an ultra-Protestant sect known as Plymouth Brethren (Darbyites), he soon began to question the doctrines forced upon him until finally rebelling against the credos of the brethren. By the end of his life he was as fervent a believer in his own religion as his parents were of their fundamental beliefs - each being at opposite ends of the spectrum. (NOTE: I'm aware that some occultists will insist that astrological factors come into play - the exact time of conception and so forth being of great importance. Also there is the notion of reincarnation. Crowley, himself, believed he lived past lives, one of them being the "double-agent" occultist, Eliphas Levi with the other being Edward Kelly, skryer to the Elizabethan magus, Dr. John Dee. This being the case, perhaps the clone would turn out similar to its infamous “twin”.) Our cloned "Alick", brought up by those sympathetic to Crowley's Thelemic laws, might himself become rebellious, adopting more conservative ideals. In fact, in attempting to clone the Great Beast, you just might create the anti-Crowley. And, after all, who'd want that? Calendar of Events August 12..........................................................Sash and Kath's Mexican Wedding Pool Party August 13 .........................................................A few headaches reported - swearing off alcohol August 14.......................................................... Some are well enough to resume with their life August 15 .........................................................Ahhh, a beer sure sounds good... HAPPY TRAILS JUSTIN DANNY MAYNARD ADAM BLAIR Category:2000 Newsletters